Four years, three hours, and forty-six minutes ago.

Our thoughts and prayers are with our fellow Hurricane Katrina survivors today on this anniversary. For all those whom we have lost along the way - requiescant in pace.

Four years later: NYT Still doesn't know where Katrina hit

The famous headline-accompanying Katrina photo: Taken here in Pascagoula, MS

The City Submerged - Josh Neufeld Tells Katrina Stories in a Graphic Novel - NYTimes.com: "Thousands upon thousands were affected by Hurricane Katrina, which struck Louisiana on Aug. 29, 2005. The magnitude of the catastrophe is depicted on a personal level in the new graphic novel “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge,” written and illustrated by Josh Neufeld and published by Pantheon."

As another anniversary approaches - Katrina memories are whirling around in my head with greater frequency and intensity... Almost like a - yeah - hurricane. I wonder how much of that is due to the lingering post-traumatic stress disorder related to the event itself.... rather than PTSD related to the really lousy, disingenuous, politically-motivated, and infuriating news coverage which followed.

I've mentioned many times before that the most devastating feeling post-Katrina was that of total isolation. I don't blame the hurricane for that feeling. I blame the national news media. For solid months they reported from, on, about, in, within, above, and in spite of New Orleans, Louisiana. Every now and then they would mention the state of Louisiana in general. In the meantime, we listened from our rotting homes in Mississippi... Saved only by those volunteers who couldn't get into New Orleans right away and ended up on our shores completely by accident. (It was rather common for volunteers to be quite surprised when we told them they were not, in fact, in Louisiana... Often they seemed a bit worried - as if they realized they were supposed to be in Louisiana and there must have been some mistake.)

From the article linked above:

"The winding road leading to the New Orleans novel began when Mr. Neufeld signed up to work with the Red Cross after the hurricane hit, serving as a disaster response worker in Biloxi, Miss., for almost a month. He said the catalyst for volunteering was 9/11. “Having been in New York when the towers fell, I remember that overwhelming feeling of helplessness and displaced anger,” he said. “When Katrina hit, I saw what was happening, and I realized that I, as a single person, could somehow help.” Mr. Neufeld blogged about his experience and self-published a collection of his dispatches called “Katrina Came Calling.”" (my emphasis)

It's got to be downright confusing to people fed a steady diet of MSM coverage for the last few years when the NYT throws in Biloxi, MS in an article which refers to the disaster exclusively in relation to New Orleans, LA.

OH but this almost clears it up:

"Together Mr. Neufeld and Mr. Smith decided to focus on New Orleans rather than on the whole Gulf Coast and to look for a broad range of people with different experiences."

Hey - wouldn't it be easier to 'look for a broad range of people with different experiences' on the whole Gulf Coast? These guys just made it harder on themselves, eh?

Let's see what else the news has for us as we approach the fourth anniversary.

From the Washington Post this week - we have this nice weather chap who tells the story of coming down to see Katrina make landfall... moving east toward Pascagoula out of concern for safety.. and having to evacuate through flooded roads as the surge came in.

Other than that, well, just see for yourself - I can't read anymore.

UPDATE: My link stopped working for the 'see for yourself' section and I'm feeling a bit under the weather.. My apologies. If you're interested... I am quite sure that any internet news search for keywords: Hurricane Katrina will produce the same results.

Breathe out....

The most annoying tropical system of the year award goes to Tropical Rainstorm Fay. Through no fault of her own, Fay irritated tens of thousands of folks coast-wide this past weekend. Despite the fact that Fay was only a tropical storm when she would begin her journey over several hundred miles of land to reach us... Despite their own admissions that Fay would be downgraded to a weakening tropical depression when and if she reached us... Our local news stations issued constant urgent warnings to the people of the Mississippi Gulf Coast about rainfall and winds gusting to 25 mph. The governor's office used their nifty new automated warning system to send out telephone messages from the governor himself telling people to be prepared and make plans to evacuate if necessary. (We didn't get one of these phone calls... Apparently the governor's office lost our number.) Nothing happened. Which is, ironically, exactly what all those warning messages predicted....

And so this weekend - the weekend of the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina... The games begin anew with the threat of what is predicted to become Hurricane Gustav.

I talked to a lady last night on the telephone who made it through Hurricane Katrina without major damage to her home only to have the place burn down 14 days later in an electrical fire.
She's been living in various trailers with rotating combinations of family members as they all try to get their own homes finished while waiting to get started on hers. She's not feeling all that happy about predictions of hurricane force Gustav winds reaching us by August 29th. It's just not funny.

I do. not. want. to. evacuate.

But we would need to start calling for hotel reservations yesterday. If we manage to get a reservation for the weekend somewhere within 200 miles of here - we will not know whether we need it or not in time to cancel reservations without having to pay for the unused rooms.

"Canceling your reservation before 6:00 PM (local hotel time) on Wednesday, 27 August, 2008 will result in no charge. Canceling your reservation after 6:00 PM (local hotel time) on 27 August, 2008, or failing to show, will result in a charge equal to the first night's stay per room to your credit card."

So I would have until 6pm tonight to decide whether or not I really need the room for a hurricane that isn't a hurricane yet that may make landfall between Sunday and Tuesday of next week if at all somewhere between the Yucatan and southern Florida.

I'm off to search for rooms.... If I can't find any I suppose I'll just throw a few hundred dollars into the Gulf of Mexico and say I did.

Back with more....